Virat Kohli chosen as captain in Cricket Australia's Test Team of the Year
As we near the end of 2016, a lot of talk is surrounding the best players in the past 12 months with the International Cricket Council(ICC), announcing a plethora of awards and XIs last week to commemorate some of the performers.
The Test and ODI XIs of the year, in particular, raised quite a few eyebrows, due to the presence of names, who had done little of note in the time period allotted between the 14th of September 2015 and the 20th September 2016 and fans were left scratching their head.
However, everybody is entitled to their own opinion and Cricket Australia(CA) have now come out with their own version of the Test Team of the year, which has marked differences to the one picked by the panel of Rahul Dravid, Gary Kirsten and Kumar Sangakkara last week.
Only five members from ICC’s team feature in CA’s team, that included Ravichandran Ashwin and Ben Stokes among others, while the rest of the top and middle order bore a different look.
Not selected in the former, Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli not just found a mention in this squad, but was also chosen to lead the side and Dale Steyn in the bowling arsenal was replaced by fellow South African Kagiso Rabada, who had a terrific series against Australia last month.
David Warner made way for his captain Steve Smith and instead of him and Alastair Cook, Azhar Ali and Joe Root were picked to open the batting in the CA Test Team of the Year.
Here are both the teams:
ICC Test Team of the Year
| No. | Player Name |
| 1. | David Warner |
| 2. | Alastair Cook(C) |
| 3. | Kane Willamson |
| 4. | Joe Root |
| 5. | Adam Voges |
| 6. | Jonny Bairstow(WK) |
| 7. | Ben Stokes |
| 8, | R Ashwin |
| 9. | Rangana Herath |
| 10. | Mitchell Starc |
| 11. | Dale Steyn |
Cricket Australia Test Team of the Year
| No. | Player Name |
| 1. | Azhar Ali |
| 2. | Joe Root |
| 3. | Steve Smith |
| 4. | Virat Kohli(C) |
| 5. | Ben Stokes |
| 6. | Jonny Bairstow |
| 7. | Quinton de Kock(WK) |
| 8. | R Ashwin |
| 9. | Rangana Herath |
| 10. | Mitchell Starc |
| 11. | Kagiso Rabada |